British Gas dismissed and discriminated against mother of triplets

The Employment Tribunal has ruled that British Gas discriminated against and unfairly dismissed a mother of triplets after a performance review was “stacked against” her following her return from maternity leave.

Joanne Stronach Head of Employment and HR reports on this recent case.

The case involved Gemma Long, who started work as an intellectual property solicitor for British Gas Trading in 2012.

Long went on maternity leave on 29 May 2016 until 11 September 2017. When she returned after giving birth to the triplets, she was contracted to work from Monday to Wednesday.

She shared the workload with one colleague, but when that colleague left Long was put under increasing pressure to work on Thursdays and Fridays by line manager Sarah Hartnell.

An email between Hartnell and another line manager, Vicky Wells, involved the pair discussing telling Long that “the work doesn’t stop at 4pm on a Wednesday”.

Long received both positive and negative feedback in a performance review in 2018 but was later placed on a Performance Improvement Plan because her rating was “below expectations”.

On 6 June 2019, she was warned she may face redundancy.

When Hartnell was assessing possible redundancies, she used Long’s 2017 performance rating rather than her 2016 rating, which should have been used as they were unable to assess a full year from 2016-17 due to Long’s maternity leave.

Long was rated as 1 out of 7 for ‘focus’ in the assessment but was not given any opportunity to suggest anything that could improve her score. She was dismissed on 12 July and unsuccessfully appealed the decision.

She brought a claim of unfair dismissal and sex discrimination, and the tribunal ruled in her favour.

Judge Gumbiti-Zimuto said that the assessment results were not scored in good faith and that the criteria was “stacked against Long as a working mother”. 

It was also both “unsustainable and unreasonable” to expect a part time employee such as Long to work additional hours. 

Long had been treated less favourably than a comparable full-time employee and was also paid £2,000 a year less than a male colleague.

The judge said: “These matters in our view also allow us to infer that Long’s personal circumstances as a mother of young children was unconsciously being held against her.” 

Compensation will be decided at a separate hearing.

For more information about the issues raised in this article or any aspect of employment law please contact Joanne on 01228 516666 or click here to send her an email.